The railroad is willing to remove building a 100- by 100-foot complex on the Hawleyville site from the plan and not ask permission for materials it does not plan to handle, Edward Rodriguez, general counsel and vice president of the railroad, said at a hearing Wednesday night.

Since the permit application became public knowledge, transfer station neighbors have argued against the new building, saying it would funnel more noise toward their houses.

"We're in the process of reviewing that application in many respects, and one of the things I believe we well may do is amend the application to delete the request to construct the building," Rodriguez said.

"The building was in the application to begin with," he added, "out of a belief that town residents would find it beneficial to conduct our unloading activities inside the building, so that the noise would be buffered."

After considering the public sentiment against the building at last month's Legislative Council meeting, railroad officials are rethinking what they'll ask for.

"We are working on a plan to continue to conduct our activities the way they have been conducted for the last six or seven years or five years, or whatever, in the building we currently occupy," Rodriguez said.

He said the railroad is also considering reducing the materials listed on its application to be handled on the site -- something public officials have vehemently argued for.

"The reason that we asked for it is because we had the right to do it before we filed an application," he said. "So we filed an application asking for anything we thought we had the right to do ...

"That turned out to be a very costly political mistake, because everyone assumed that we are going to do what we applied for."

Some of the materials on the current application include casting sand, coal, fly ash, construction and demolition debris, contaminated dredge spoils, contaminated soil, ash generated by a trash incineration plant, scrap tires and sludge ash.

"We are also planning to work with town officials to discuss those aspects of our permit to the DEP that they find most troublesome," Rodriguez said, to find something "more compatible with what the citizens and town officials think the town of Newtown requires."

Rodriguez said the railroad is planning a public-information session to explain exactly what it wants to do at the Hawleyville facility.

"Unfortunately, both of our projects on the site have captured the public's attention in a way that we believe to be exaggerated," Rodriguez said.